Civil Engineering Surveying Students Earn First Place in Survey Competition
Seth Prunty of Cabot (left), A-State's survey team leader, accepts the ASCE plaque for the team's first-place performance at the Mid-South Student Symposium.
JONESBORO – Students in the Arkansas State University chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) enjoyed a strong performance in the annual Mid-South Student Symposium (MSSS), which drew 14 teams from universities in Arkansas and Tennessee to the competition in Chattanooga, Tenn.
One of the A-State teams earned a first-place finish in the three days of contests in which 20 A-State students, accompanied by civil engineering faculty adviser Jason Stewart, competed.
The events required varying levels of preparation, with some involving design and fabrication work and written report documentation over an eight-month period. Preparations for next year’s competition will start as soon as the fall semester begins.
“Overall, the MSSS was a great opportunity for our students to showcase their skills and abilities in a wide range of activities,” Stewart said. “From fabrication to project management to communication, the students were challenged on numerous fronts and represented A-State admirably.”
The A-State students participated in several ASCE competitions and events, including concrete canoe, UESI (Utility Engineering and Surveying Institute) surveying, sustainable solutions, AISC (American Institute of Steel Construction) student steel bridge, construction institute, and a community service project to restore habitat to a local streambank and park area.
The students’ highest finish was first place in the UESI surveying competition. The surveying team, led by Seth Prunty of Cabot, completed a series of tasks including a topographic mapping project and presentation, pacing, differential leveling, building stakeout, and determining the depth of a proposed sewer line and the cut at multiple locations along that route. Madison Walker of Tuckerman and Luke McMahan of Maumelle are the other team members.
The construction institute team, led by Kyle Greene of Conway, placed second in that contest. The team was tasked with solving various construction-related challenges for real-world engineering projects. Projects ranged from traffic control and site logistics to environmental impact assessment and risk management. Other team members are Alex Covington of Searcy and Stedman Riley of Maumelle.
The students competed very well in the remaining competitions and showcased their work with pride, including a third-place finish in the T-shirt competition.
The concrete canoe and student steel bridge teams were comprised largely of seniors on the design and written documentation side, but they utilized underclassmen and juniors for various components of fabrication and competition challenges.
The A-State ASCE chapter concrete canoe team poses with their project, "Raging Red Wolves."
